Lisa gets in touch with her inner hipster after going to a music camp. Krusty is nominated for a Nobel Prize but it's actually a way to get him on the International Court of Justice.
Tropes:
- Accidental Hero: Krusty refused to play in Apartheid-era South Africa after the venue didn't meet his requirements. Apparently this was the last straw that led to the release of Nelson Mandela from prison. Bart uses a video of this to successfully argue that Krusty has had a positive impact on Western culture, sparing him from prison.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: While looking for evidence that Krusty made a cultural contribution, Homer and Bart find a video of The Electric Company (1971) with a blackboard. The blackboard has the phrase "Gus got gas and the guy got gum".
- Adolf Hitlarious: A Dutch clock tower has two dolls hitting a Hitler-shaped doll with hammers.
- Advertised Extra: The Glee Guest Stars were heavily built up in the promos for this episode, but only really appear in a minor role in the first act.
- Boastful Rap: Kurt and Ethan (and Stephen Hawking, and a cow) perform one at art camp about how "amazing" artists are. Subverted when it turns out none of the boasts were actually true, and they were just trying to impress Lisa.
- Dark Reprise: While Lisa is at art camp, Kurt and Ethan perform a Boastful Rap about how great it is being an artist. When she discovers they were lying about how glamorous their lives as artists are, they perform a slowed-down ballad version that admits the truth.
- Guest Star: Glee performers Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Amber Riley appear as themselves at the art camp Lisa goes to. Bret and Jemaine play the counselors, while Stephen Hawking makes a brief cameo during their Boastful Rap.Stephen Hawking: Yes. Break it down. [spins in his wheelchair] A brief history of rhyme.
- Hypocritical Humor: Right after telling Krusty that Europeans don't use the prefix "Euro" in everything, the judge orders Euro-guards to use Euro-cuffs on him. Furthermore, the Euro-cuffs do look like the symbol for the Euro currency.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: Krusty is lured into the Netherlands where he can be prosecuted for stealing jokes from a Dutch clown.
- Sensitive Artist: Played for Laughs when Kurt and Ethan admit to Lisa via Dark Reprise that being an artist is nowhere near as glamorous as they'd hyped it up to be.Kurt: [singing] Artists make a living dressing up like falafel.Ethan: [singing] Artists shed a tear when they're called something awful.Passerby: You ain't no falafel![Ethan sheds a single tear]
- Shout-Out: The title is obviously referencing High School Musical.
- Starving Artist: Being an artist might seem like a glamorous career, but it is not an easy one. Nor is it one where you're always going to succeed. Kurt and Ethan are forced to work a low-paying job to make ends meet.
- Stealing from the Till: Kurt and Ethan work at a Subway expy from which they're implied to regularly steal tomatoes and other sandwich fillings, as they apparently don't make enough money to eat properly.
- Too Dumb to Live: While in jail, Krusty sings about having to become a prison snitch to get out and the fellow inmates who hear him beat him up.
- Tricked into Another Jurisdiction: The Springfieldians are astounded by the announcement "live from Stockholm" that Krusty the Clown has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Krusty subsequently boards a plane to Oslo for the award ceremony, but to his surprise the plane lands in The Hague in the Netherlands. A Dutch policeman then reveals that Krusty is to be arrested and tried at the International Court of Justice for his manyfold crimes in Europe (such as dropping a monkey from the Eiffel tower, "aggravated hey-hey" in Greece, and stealing the jokes of a Dutch clown); the Nobel Prize was only a ruse to lure Krusty to Europe.
